Deccan Chargers ended Rajasthan Royals' hopes of reaching the Indian Premier League 2012 play-offs with a five-wicket win in Hyderabad.

It was just their second victory in four seasons at their principal home ground and Rajasthan could not have picked a worse time to turn in their worst batting performance of the season.

Their score of 126 for eight was overhauled in the penultimate over by the Chargers, who now have a chance to avoid finishing at the bottom of the table.

Batting first, the Royals made a good start as Rahul Dravid scored 39 in 35 balls but wickets falling regularly hampered their cause.

Despite a woeful fielding performance, Dale Steyn, Veer Pratap Singh and Amit Mishra all returned two wickets apiece. Manpreet Gony bowled better than his figures of one for 26 suggest given that two early chances went down off his bowling.

Owais Shah (28) and Ashok Maneria (20) were the only other batsmen to put up much resistance.

In reply, Deccan's run chase was led by Aksath Reddy, whose 42 in 35 balls was the top score of the match but contributions of 26 from Shikhar Dhawan and 24 from JP Duminy kept them on top.

Rajasthan kept their hopes alive as Siddharth Trivedi grabbed a couple of wickets to recuce the home side to 118 for five but there was to be no late collapse, Deccan for once keeping their nerve.

Parthiv Patel and Ashish Reddy were both unbeaten on ten as the match was won with eight balls to spare.